Occupational Therapy Assistant Leyland, England
Job description
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust is the health provider for the delivery of an innovative prison-based assessment and treatment service for individuals with personality related needs.
This service is based within HMP Garth which is a category B men’s adult prison based in Leyland. The service is part of the National Offender Personality Disorder Strategy and is delivered as a partnership between HMP Garth and Mersey Care NHS Trust.
The service provides 1:1 and group-based interventions based on Professor Livesley’s framework and model of interventions for individuals with personality related needs.
These structured interventions are provided as part of a therapeutic milieu which involves a focus on attachment, trauma and systemic approaches, alongside comprehensive risk assessment and management.
Core aims of the service are consistent with those of the OPD Pathway in improving psychological wellbeing, reducing risk, improving staff skills and competencies and pathway focused intervention.
The post holder will contribute to the delivery of a range of therapeutic interventions under the supervision of an Occupational Therapist. The applicant will recognise the value of engaging in activity alongside residents to enhance well-being and develop skills.
Applicants should have experience of working within multi-disciplinary teams supporting individuals with personality related needs. This experience should include working with clients who struggle with challenging behaviour and find it difficult to engage with services. The successful candidate will be required to work effectively within a challenging and busy environment and will manage the personal, professional and ethical opportunities and challenges that such work can involve.
The post-holder will be joining a dedicated partnership team from a range of backgrounds and experiences. Team members have high levels of skill, passion, humour(!) and are committed to ensuring the on-going development of the service.
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 11 million people.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
1. To work effectively as a member of a team in providing a programme of unit/wing based therapeutic activities that are flexible according to the changing needs of the residents
2. To actively engage residents in therapeutic activities to promote independence and well-being.
3. The post holder will be required to work at times single handed under the guidance of an Occupational Therapist.
4. To form professional relationships with residents, and communicate with them in a way that respects their views, autonomy and culture.
5. To maintain a high degree of confidentiality.
